Talon and company moved through the dungeon. Slaying the trogladyte…King had been the easy part. The monster had brought them past the bulk of the horde, directly into his private chambers, and lowered its guard.

  The escape was turning out to be a different matter entirely. Talon moved like a creature of the night, swift and silent, while his companions – did their best.

  After exiting the chambers, they stood at a nexus, the sounds of fighting emanating from each of the six directions. It was a civil war, with mutant-on-mutant violence.

  “Which direction…” Talon thought about scouting ahead; he could move swiftly and silently, avoiding most unwanted attention. But that wouldn’t do – he had – responsibilities. Pryuuk was a burden, and there was no other way of putting it. He would not abandon Churi’s mate, nor could he bring himself to like the pathetic creature.

  The twins were another matter, and their class was… “What exactly are you two doing?” Talon’s eyebrow raised, incredulous.

  The brothers faced each other, their shoulders rolled in opposition, lips pursed, finger tips touching – and heads bobbing in rhythm. “Charging up!” Replied Noxx, Jynxx nodded in the dark, “Egui.”

  Talon sighed. He really did not like children, not at all. They were quiet at least.

  “Bryaahaa!” Talon, startled at the unexpected cry, craned his neck to look behind. Shadows danced as figures emerged around the bend of one of the middle passages.

  Muffled trumpets ascended, the clattering of tea house porcelain – woven into a... Talon’s eyes narrowed as he slowly turned to give the children a piece of his mind. Instead, they flew wide, eyebrows climbing to the top of his head, danger sense tingling.

  A pinpoint of light between their outstretched arms. As they drew their hands back, a ball of crackling light and energy, arcing with plasma, grew. Their pace increased, the music between them escalating. The twins' heads snapped in his direction, their eyes locked over his shoulder.

  They brought their arms forward in unison, their wrists stacked and palms outstretched facing away. As the flashing increased, and their beat crescendo’d into a fevered pitch – Talon’s danger sense rang in alarm – Death!

  He hit the deck, joining Pryuuk, who lay sprawled on the floor. Talon looked up.

  A half smirk split the boy’s faces, turning up on one side each, completing a full smile between them. The ball of light had a gravity to it; the air around them warped, as their mohawks stood on end, waving like snakes. “Three,” said Noxx. “Two,” said Jynxx. “One – let's go!” they called out. The missile was released, a rocket without sound, casting shadows in its wake.

  Troggladytes filled the tunnel ahead; their steady flow had cut off from around the bend. The whites of their eyes were visible. The first dozen mutants hit, vanished above the knees – the sphere dimmed as it went, but not by much.

  The missile removed limb, scalp, and skull as the monsters turned to flee or dodge, unable to maneuver in the cramped space. The sphere had dimmed and shrunk to a quarter of its size by the time it embedded itself in the wall.

  Talon sat up, blinking in disbelief at the carnage the kids had wrought, “W-what class?” That was all he could think to say. The twins slumped to the ground behind him, landing with a pair of thuds. Talon shook his head.

  He came up with a plan, quickly dragging the boys into the tunnel, through the trail of carnage. He stacked bodies at the point of the nexus, aware that the commotion would bring the complete tunnel system down around their heads.

  Talon snapped at the dazed Pryuuk, who stood lamely, as he worked, “Help me stack bodies!” His plan was simple: they would rest while the mutants were drawn to this location, hoping they would tear each other apart.

  Pryuuk gave up after blocking off the nexus entrance and slumped against the wall, a slumbering twin beneath each arm. Talon ignored him, working to block off the other direction, bricking them in corpse by corpse.

  After his gruesome task was finished, he slumped against the opposite wall from Pryuuk, alone with his thoughts, and nothing to occupy his mind.

  Talon disspared, something had gone terribly wrong, and now – he found himself lashed to a group of beasts. He flicked out his tongue, beasts – troggladytes were – he shook his head as he stared at the three slumbering figures.

  Why had Churi saved him? He knew the answer; she’d saved him because she was smart and brave, and – he looked away.

  Blood soaked into the floor, creating a slurry. The corpses were fresh and the smell not yet potent, but for the vacated and torn bowels.

  Churi, the cranekin, a beast. They had shared a moment of connection, person to person. He’d been strapped to a cooking pole, and she – stuck in a cage. A gang of mutants between them, Churi and he were beasts – nothing more than food.

  As they shared a look, a moment in time, an understanding – Churi had decided to free him. She knew it would be their best chance of survival, despite him having planned on killing her only a day before. He would have left her rotting corpse, for her husband and his students to find, without a second thought.

  Her resolve had shocked him. She must have known an attacker rushed her from behind, as she fought to cut his arm free. The last thing she’d done, even as her neck snapped, was place the knife in his free hand.

  What would Eldrin have thought of Churi? His master had been a kind man, right up until the end, even as he was betrayed. He knew what Eldrin would say about Churi; she was a hero. She had been willing to sacrifice herself for something she cared about and loved, no matter how bitter the pill to swallow.

  And now, all was lost, or soon to be, if the vatagand was out of control—off its leash. It had already taken down one district; the others would soon fall. Eldrin’s legacy had been lost, and it must have been Ren; he was the single unknown variable in all this.

  Talon’s eyes grew heavy as the sounds of fighting lulled him to sleep, and the four sat slumped in their shelter of gore.

  —

  Jynxx and Noxx awoke to a system notification, for the second time in as many nights.

  *SHING*

  [Raver Level 5!]

  No skills this time. The previous night, after awakening in a cage, to the sound of the system, in a new voice, an orcish voice, like their friend Nom, rewarding them with [Dub Bomb].

  Talon lifted a single eyelid, as he too was awoken from slumber.

  [Class Removed → Eldrin’s Chosen]

  [Class Obtained → Ronin]

  [Ronin Level 5!]

  [Passive Skill Obtained → Ronin’s Claws]

  [Title Obtained → Cursed Slayer]

  [You will kill anything or anyone, no matter how vile the deed. For you, the end always justifies the means. Death hangs like an invisible cloud around you.]

  Pryuuk tightened his grip around the twins as he shifted in his sleep.

  [Teacher Level 20!]

  [Skill Obtained → One of Us]

  Stolen story; please report.

  [Skill Obtained → One More Lecture]

  —

  Talon was moving corpses as he unblocked their path. Pryuuk helped, his blank stare replaced with a weight around his eyes. The bird refused to speak, and Talon gave him his space. The twins were back at their strange dance routine, their bodies awash in a white hot glow, and somehow they smiled, despite all the tragedy.

  “Done!” Noxx smiled, and Jynxx laughed, “Yeah, so quick – max charge in barely a few minutes – do you think it will be easier for us to shoot?”

  Noxx stood arms akimbo, “Egui! We can kill them all now. That was so easy.”

  Before Jynxx could speak up, Pryuuk cut him off, “Taking a life is not fun – this is not a game!” He snapped, and the twins paled.

  Talon observed, but said nothing – he knew little of children, he’d gone from crawling around the upper spires, as the fastest and meanest wyrmback, to the Chambers of Eldrin in a fully grown human form. So childhood was not something he’d even experienced.

  Noxx stood a little taller, setting his jaw, “But Pryuuk, we saved everyone.” Jynxx stepped forward, not one to let his brother stand alone, “Yeah, we’re egui – and you’re just angry because you did nothing!” Noxx pointed an accusatory finger and Pryuuk said, “Yea–y–you just let her die – your class is worthless!”

  Pryuuk staggered, Talon gripped him under the arm, casting his eyes towards the Twins, “That’s enough, you’ll not unleash that chaos unless I say so. Now get over here and push these corpses out of the way.

  Talon rested Pryuuk against the wall, whose face had returned to the blank slate. “Battle isn’t glory – it's dirty work. You killed living things – to them we were just food, nothing more than fish for the grill.”

  The twins shared a questioning look, noses wrinkled, lips pursed. Talon turned his back on them and began shoving corpses away. It was time they made their way out of here.

  —

  They unlocked the way back into the nexus, Talon stepped through the clearing, before turning to face the twins, “Block this back–

  He held up a hand to silence the children's protests, “Save your attack for a last-ditch effort, try not to push yourself, lest you pass out again.

  He glanced down at the blank-faced Pryuuk, “Your duty is to protect him. I’ll return as soon as I can.”

  The twins nodded, their jaws set, expression cold – they wouldn’t let Talon down, and Pryuuk needed them now.

  —

  Talon looked down at his hands, human hands; they would forever be his. He’d gotten his dream – he was no longer a beast – Eldrin’s class was gone. He flexed his fingers, “[Ronin’s Claws].” A predatory smile crossed his face. His nails elongated to razor-sharp tips, and the bones of his fingers cracked and popped as they grew in length and size, until five dagger-like shapes formed, their tips gleaming with fury.

  Talon looked to the left-most hall and, hearing the sounds of distant fighting, decided to work his way left to right – the systematic approach would be best here.

  Talon bolted down the dimly lit corridor, torchlight flickering around a near bend. As he rounded the corner, he found dozens of troggladytes engaged in armed combat – if broken furniture and rusted steel counted as arms.

  Talon stuck to the shadows and shielded his eyes from the torchlight, preserving his vision. What he saw: groups of two and three younglings, if their size was any measure, pitted against the larger and armed adults.

  The young were losing, their limbs mutilated and skulls leaking, as the scent of blood and excrement hung heavy in the enclosed space – mixing with the smoke of the fire to create an overwhelming stench.

  Rage filled Talon’s heart. These were beasts, and they all needed to die. He glanced down at his claws – Churi’s last moments of life played through his mind – his lip curled up at the corner, toes dug into the dirt, and claws fanned out.

  Talon kicked off, flashing past the nearest group – drawing his claws across jugulars, gouts of blood showering behind – his eyes focused on the next.

  A gaggle of juniors ripped tendon from bone as they crawled across the surface of a fallen troggladyte. With their heads lined up just right, Talon took off all four in two parallel swipes, their heads ejecting like food baskets. He never broke speed as he leaped at the near wall, propelling himself horizontally, his claws digging into stone, before launching himself at an adult climbing off a pair of battered and defeated youth.

  He extended a single arm out, plucking the heart from the back of the beast, parting rib and flesh – never slowing his momentum, Talon through the heart into the face of an oncoming attacker, before dropping into a slide.

  He swung his arm up, ripping through the soft, exposed flesh between its legs, before coming up into a roll and launching himself into a pack of two on six. Talon’s mind went blank as he spun and twisted, plunging his fingers into soft spaces and racking them across pulsing veins.

  Soon, he was swinging at empty air – gore dripping from his fingertips, his face a bloody mask. Talon rolled out his neck, before jogging back the way he’d come – there was much work yet to do.

  —

  Talon lost himself again and again, in a cycle of violence, as he used the chaos to mask his presence and erase these filthy creatures from the dungeon. When he was through, there would be nothing but rotting corpses.

  They had no monster cores and no loot; they were little more than beasts—less than beasts, not even edible.

  He raced across the network of tunnels, reaping souls, in a desperate attempt to escape the dark thoughts playing through his head.

  What had he become? What had the Keepers become? Eldrin built them to counter the strength of the other guilds. A way for knowledge to be shared, so that it might never again be accumulated in the hands of a central authority as it had been with the Monarchy.

  The guilds had won out in the Beast Wars, but in the wake of that victory, each sought to become a singular power of their own – hoarding knowledge and power. Eldrin established the Keepers and built the first district as a counter to that push.

  He’d been diplomatic, sharing his skill with each guild in turn, in the creation of their districts. But the moment Eldrin had pushed for a district independent of any guild, they’d turned on him.

  The argument was that people were like minnows, clinging to any filth that drifted their way and could not be trusted. Eldrin had ignored the threats of the Guilds, right up until the very end –

  Talon knew he was dead; he couldn’t prove it, but Eldrin would never vanish. He just couldn’t understand how someone as powerful as his master could be stopped without a trace.

  Now, Talon had his suspicions; he’d always assumed betrayal – it was the only way. But he was looking in the wrong direction, blaming peasants, beastkin – anyone he could think of. But it must have been his own guild, the Keepers. If they were foolish enough to unleash a vatagand on their own people, what else might they have done?

  Talon had known the plan was terrible, regardless of any role Ren may have had in disrupting the operation. Eldrin had created his guild for that exact reason. Things like the vatagand were kept in secret, precisely because they were so dangerous – no sane person, no matter how lowly their status, would ever agree to its creation.

  There would have been riots across the bog had the people known what their leaders had created. A beast that grew without end, consuming until all was destroyed. Control was an illusion; magic always beat the odds, turning the impossible into the probable.

  Talon had been a fool – blinded by rage, at Eldrin’s death, allowing himself to turn into the very thing his master hated above all else – a tool for power. He looked down at his fingers, sticky with the blood of his enemies, and sighed, “[Ronin’s Claws.]”

  As he entered back into the nexus for the final time, all pathways explored – at least as far as the sounds of battling troggladytes had taken him, Talon froze. The area he’d left his party was unblocked, and he dashed over, looking through the gap – nobody was there.

  He pinched his shoulders, flexing his fingers, a slight bend in his knees – ready to spring into action. He swiveled his head back and forth, listening for any sounds –

  “Egui!”

  Talon relaxed. That wasn’t the sound of trouble; it came from the King's room – he sighed, before heading in that direction. When he entered the chamber, he saw a pile of stacked bodies spilling out from behind a ragged curtain and a small pile of rocks in the center of the room, shaped like a body.

  Churi. They must have come in here to bury her, as best they could. The twins were inspecting a series of crude paintings along the far wall. Pryuuk stood behind them, “It looks like they were trapped down here…”

  Pryuuk trailed off at the sound of Talon entering the room. He turned to look in his direction, and his face paled. The [Ronin] was suddenly aware of his ghastly appearance. To his credit, the [Teacher] said nothing, only nodding once, “Is it done?”

  Talon flicked his hands, a look of embarrassment on his face, “I – yes, if we run into any more trouble – I doubt any will bother us, at least not of these.” He gestured to the pile along the wall.

  Pryuuk turned to continue his observations with the twins. Talon shook his head before sauntering over to the sanguinary stack, hoping to use a few bits of scrap cloth to clean himself. As he ripped a bit free, something crawled out from beneath a corpse – it was soaked in gore, and its tiny hands sought a purchase, as it wriggled and squirmed in a desperate attempt to free itself.

  A look of horror crossed his face as he whispered, “[Ronin’s Claws].” He would stop this thing now, before it grew into a monster – only spreading more death.

  As he brought his claws down, his swing was halted mid-air—a grip like steel. Talon looked up into Pryuuk's eyes with a look of unrestrained fury. “Step back.” The [Ronin] relaxed his muscles, standing up and backing away, he had only –

  The twins rushed over, “What is it, Pryuuk?” Asked Jynxx, before Noxx spoke, “A monster! Put it down – it might try to bite you –” Jynxx added in, “It could have a curse – or…”

  Pryuuk stood cradling a mewling creature, unrecognizable beneath the filth and gore. It grasped his extended finger, attempting to suckle. It flinched at the sounds of the twins' voices, going silent – its own self-preservation evident.

  Talon took a step forward, “Here, Pryuuk – please – let me, we should put it out of its misery.”

  Pryuuk didn’t look up as he spoke, “[One of Us].”

  After a moment, the twins were at his side, having removed their shirts. They wiped away the remains of the baby's ancestors, the last of its kind, born from blood and ash.

  A single tear ran down Talon’s face as he watched the three save the newborn – all he could think of was his own master, once upon a time, looking down at him, nothing but a fat lizard, no concerns in life but its next meal.

  I love this story and its world. I'm in it for the long haul, trying to improve every day. Please rate, follow, and comment — it truly means the world to me.

  You can support my work on my Patreon listed below. I’m only asking for a one-time donation at this time(a baby one, barely enough for a cup of coffee), as I get on my feet. But you can join for free either way, and gain access to the story's private Discord channel, and eventually vote on future chapters. I will reward those early members who show faith in my story and my will to write with a lifetime membership to my storytelling.

  https://patreon.com/prometheusrites_?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

  It would bring joy to my heart and fill my fingers with strength if you would post your fan art to my Instagram, with a link to the story on RR!

  https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/133810/rhythms-of-fate